“Robyn Hod, one of the porters, because he could no longer work, [was] given five shillings by command.”
This intriguing entry appears in the chamber accounts of King Edward II on 22 November 1324. The man named was a porter in the king’s household during 1323 and 1324. The discovery was made by Joseph Hunter (1783–1861), an antiquarian and assistant keeper of the Public Record Office, whose research into medieval Yorkshire led him to investigate the historical origins of Robin Hood.
Hunter’s research culminated in 1852 with the publication of The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hood his Period etc. Investigated and Perhaps Ascertained, the fourth and final volume of his Critical and Historical Tracts.
Hunter rejected the idea that Robin Hood should simply be dismissed as a medieval invention. Instead, he believed that references in the early Robin Hood tradition could be tested against contemporary records and identifiable places.
The Clues in the Geste
Hunter turned particularly to the Geste of Robyn Hode, one of the earliest surviving Robin Hood ballads. Its references to places, roads, kings and events gave him a series of clues that could be compared with the historical record.
The poem places Robin in Barnsdale:
“Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
And lenyd hym to a tre.”
Hunter found documentary evidence that travel through Barnsdale in the early fourteenth century could be dangerous enough to require an armed escort. On one occasion, a guard accompanying prisoners from Scotland was increased to twenty archers “on account of Barnsdale.”
The Geste also mentions the Saylis and Watling Street:
“And walke up to the Saylis,
And so to Watlinge Strete.”
Hunter identified the Saylis as a small tenancy within the manor of Pontefract and Watling Street as the Roman road crossing Barnsdale.
These details gave Hunter something important: specific clues that could be tested against the historical record.
The Geste then provides an even more significant clue by naming Robin’s king:
“Tyll that I have gete us grace
Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.”
The king later comes to Nottingham:
“The kynge came to Notynghame
With knyghtes in gret araye.”
And the poem describes him travelling through Lancashire and losing many of his deer:
“All the compasse of Lancasshyre
He went both ferre and nere,
Tyll he came to Plomton Parke,
He faylyd many of his dere.”
For Hunter, the combination of a named king, identifiable places, a royal journey and the loss of deer provided a historical framework worth investigating.
Edward II Enters the Story
Hunter’s candidate was Edward II.
In 1323, Edward made a prolonged progress through northern England, travelling through Yorkshire and Lancashire and visiting places including Plumpton Park, Kirkham Abbey, Pickering, Jervaulx and Upholland before reaching Nottingham.
The Geste describes Robin seeking Edward’s favour:
“Thou shalt with me to grene wode,
Without ony leasynge,
Tyll that I have gete us grace
Of Edwarde, our comly kynge.”
Edward reached Nottingham on 9 November 1323 and remained there until 23 November.
The Geste records:
“The kynge came to Notynghame
With knyghtes in gret araye.”
Hunter also noted that Edward’s northern progress involved investigations into forest offences and matters concerning royal venison, which he saw as an interesting parallel with the king’s concern over his deer in the Geste.
But the most remarkable discovery came when Hunter examined Edward II’s household accounts.
The Royal Porter
There he found a man named Robyn Hod, one of the king’s chamber porters, paid three pence a day.
The surviving accounts record his presence, absences and wages during 1324. On several occasions deductions were made because he was absent. Then, on 22 November, came the extraordinary entry:
“To Robyn Hod formerly one of the porters because he can no longer work, five shillings as a gift by commandment.”
Hunter acknowledged that this did not prove the man was the Robin Hood of the ballads:
“Whether he was some other person who chanced to bear the same name... I for my part believe it is the same person.”
For Hunter, the coincidence between the Geste and the royal records was striking. The ballad describes Robin spending time at the king’s court:
“Had Robyn dwelled in the kynges courte,
But twelve monethes and thre.”
It also contains Robin’s complaint:
“Yf I dwele lenger with the kynge,
Sorowe wyll me sloo.”
Hunter believed these passages could reflect the same period of royal service recorded in the household accounts.
Robert Hood of Wakefield
Hunter then looked for a connection between the royal porter and a historical Robert Hood of Wakefield.
In the Wakefield manor court rolls, he found a Robert Hood involved in a dispute over land. The following year, Robert Hood’s wife was recorded as Matilda.
Hunter also drew attention to the Geste’s reference to a “wicked woman” associated with Robin:
“The pryoresse of Kyrkely,
That nye was of hys kynne.”
He believed he had identified a possible connection with Elizabeth de Staynton, who became prioress of Kirklees around 1346–1347.
Taken together, Hunter believed the evidence connected the outlaw of Barnsdale, Robert Hood of Wakefield and the Robyn Hode who served in Edward II’s household.
Hunter’s Theory
Hunter ultimately proposed that Robin Hood was born around 1285–1295 near Wakefield, became involved in the cause of Lancaster, and took to robbery in Barnsdale after the defeat of his lord. He believed Robin remained an outlaw from about April 1322 until December 1323, when Edward II pardoned him and brought him into the royal household as a porter.
After about a year at court, Hunter suggested Robin left the king’s service and returned to the greenwood.
It was an ambitious theory, and it was not universally accepted. Francis Child, the editor of English and Scottish Ballads, dismissed Hunter’s attempt to find a “remarkable coincidence between the ballad and the record,” accusing him of “theoretical prepossession.”
The debate continued. J. W. Walker revisited the Wakefield evidence in 1944, P. V. Harris continued the investigation in 1954, and John Bellamy reassessed the historical evidence in his 1985 book Robin Hood: An Historical Enquiry, including possible historical counterparts for other characters in the Geste.
The Search Continues
Since Hunter ignited the debate over the possibility of a historical Robin Hood, many archivists and historians have continued the search, bringing forward new discoveries, documentary evidence and suggestions. Among the approaches explored has been the study of “Robin Hood” surnames, looking for individuals whose names or records might offer further clues to the origins of the legend.
The evidence does not prove that the Robyn Hode in the royal accounts was the legendary outlaw. He may have been another man who happened to bear the same name.
Yet Hunter’s discovery created an intriguing historical possibility: that behind the medieval legend was a real man from Yorkshire who spent time in Barnsdale, entered the service of Edward II, and later returned to the greenwood.
That possibility has kept the search alive. Each new archival discovery, however tentative, adds another piece to the larger puzzle of whether the Robin Hood of medieval legend was based on a real historical figure.
For me, that is what makes Hunter’s research so compelling. As a young student, brought up on the multitude of films and television series about the outlaw, and with a growing love of history, I was fascinated by the possibility that the Robin Hood of legend might have been a real person. Hunter’s work brought those two interests together: the Robin Hood of popular culture and the Robin Hood who might be found hidden within medieval records.
It is that possibility that makes the search so compelling. What begins with stories of an outlaw in the greenwood becomes a journey through ballads, ancient roads, medieval documents, manor court rolls and royal accounts. It turns the search for Robin Hood into a historical quest, following a trail from the Geste, through Barnsdale and Wakefield, and finally into the household of Edward II—the “comly kynge.”
Could King Edward II really have met the legendary Robin Hood?
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